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​Which is the best strategy for brand growth and outreach, and when is best to use it?

Building your brand online used to be heavily weighted towards questionable SEO link building and often quite clumsy, and paid for, curated content links.Fortunately, in more recent times, Google and Facebook algorithms have shown a preference for original, well written copy that will remain robust during the trials and tribulations of semantic search and more recently, voice search.However, this in no way means that there is only one way to do things or that only one way is right. Let's have a little explore of how each method works and the best way to make use of the strengths of each approach.

Original content was once the niche of media publishers; content creation and distribution was relatively expensive to commission and access was pretty limited to newspapers, TV stations, established media houses etc, however, the rise of accessibility and affordability to blogging platforms and the ease that anyone can now start a personal or business website opened the opportunities with to a much wider client base in the years following the ‘dot com’ crash.​Some advantages of utilising original content creation:

Improved web search visibility: From an SEO perspective Google clearly states it ranks original content higher than curated. Google will rank your site higher than a competitors' if your content performs well within semantic search criteria. Content has to be readable and relevant; gone are the days of cheap offshore, keyword stuffed, repetitive content being acceptable to build your brand.

Better brand recognition: The producers of original content enjoy wider brand recognition and an accelerated belief of their brand being a 'better value' for the consumer. Original content creation gives your brand complete control to match the writing style, tone of voice and on point, relevant, up to date information about your specific product or service.

Traffic to the content will drive visitors to your site. Good quality content will get shares from content curators using your original content as an authority on your field or product.

The possible downside of content creation:

Good quality content costs time and money to research and produce -although realistically the investment now will reap rewards later. Perception of affordability can be a problem in the short term, especially for small businesses.

Plagiarism: Someone may purely take your content and offer it as their own, or curate and publish without correct attribution and credit or may not link to the original article- that is just bad etiquette.

Curated content used to mainly consist of a link to other existing content on another site, often with a reciprocal link back to the sharing site to help build good links. In reality this was often a poor-quality attempt resulting in ‘spammy’ black hat SEO techniques. The rise of YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr etc has created a funnel into which a huge amount of new content traffic is delivered to existing and newly emerging content creators and curators. These easily accessible and hugely popular sharing platforms produce millions of words, videos, images and memes every day. It is all openly available to share, like and curate.Evolution has made the curation process much more sophisticated, particularly with the assistance of content curation platforms and apps such as buffer, Hootsuite, Content Gems, Fark, et al. Others such as BuzzFeed and Diply for example, stand in the crossover between being content creators and content curators by creating ‘new content’ based on the curation and expansion of existing content across social platforms.

The most obvious advantages of content curation;

Content curation platforms ensure that relevant or interesting content is easy to find, organise and publish- all within a couple of clicks. This can even be scheduled to go live at a day and time of your choice.

Scalable; low input of time for acquiring substantial amounts of data make this source of content provision extremely cost effective. The speed of scale combined with lower or no content writing costs leads to generating more noise online for your brand.

The negative aspects of content curation;

The ‘value’ of your brand may suffer. The quality of content you share may not truly be in line with the standards you wish for your brand. It is still important that you read through the articles you plan to share to ensure it upholds your beliefs and standards. One headline may seem catchy and fresh to encourage you to engage with the article- but you could ruin the reputation of your brand within moments if you do not take time to ensure you are not sharing oppressive hatred or libellous diatribes.

Legal issues from not accrediting the original source or copyright infringement.

Poorer SEO and brand visibility due to possible duplicate content issues and curated content will rank lower for optimised keywords than original content.

Lose followers if curated content comes from a small selection of sources. People may be led to simply by pass your interface to go directly to your source-cutting out the middle man means removing you from the traffic.

​The solutions to the problems you face when deciding on the original content creation vs content curation can be easily found if you stop for a moment and create a clear plan.

Decide who you are as a brand and what message do you want to get across. Who is your target audience?

​Original crafted content, carefully commissioned will definitely drive your company forward, and if the initial outlay seems beyond your reach financially or time critically, take a moment to look forwards and think what that investment now could mean a few weeks or months down the line; new traffic directed to your website, organic traffic and less of your time spent searching for clients - good content will help them find you.Despite this content explosion, original content still offers the best value to brands through more effective SEO and stronger brand identity and visibility, it showcases you as a thought leader, demonstrates your brand thinking, your unique voice and opinions, highlights your credibility and encourages deeper relationships with your intended audience.

Using curated content as a scalable and cost effective add on to use in conjunction with your original content is a perfect strategy to benefit from the wider audiences you will attract and engage. When done well, curation can make your brand the ‘go to’ authority on products, processes or news within your industry. Sharing content that is curated also adds to the collaborative mindset of helping other businesses within your industry. Now I am in no way suggesting you signpost your potential clients and customers to your competitors, but, with a few minutes thoughtfully spent curating meaningful and relevant content about areas of your industry that are not in direct competition, you will create networks of interdependence with your marketing. When you give something to a community, the community will give back to you. Curation is cost efficient, time efficient, builds new relationships as you widen your audience and introduces your existing audience with a wider range of alternative views and information to create a more enriching interface for your target audience.

If you rely solely on one or other strategy you may miss out on the positive benefits of both, if the balance of Curated Content -vs- Created Content is maintained mindfully, the negatives of each will be reduced, securing your place as a high-ranking authority in your field.​To find out how Creative Copy Writers can help you strengthen your brand identity through content creation and curation strategies, do get in touch…